


A New Class, A New Era

by John_Clarke



Series: X-Men Academy (Class of 2015) [1]
Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coming of Age, Education, F/F, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Major Original Character(s), Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 08:31:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5578576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Clarke/pseuds/John_Clarke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xavier's Mansion opens its doors to a new class of mutants after two decades. This story deals with their introduction to one another and the first steps in their journey towards becoming fully-fledged superheroes. The story is building towards a love story but, otherwise, focuses on a diverse cast of characters, their struggles with identity and the rigours of training and the famous X-Men Academy.</p><p>This is a fairly short work by a, relatively, inexperienced author and is intended to be the first in a series. It focuses on a host of original characters and a select number of canonical ones from the Marvel, or more narrowly, X-Men universe.</p><p>This work contains coarse language, mild violence and sexual scenes and references.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [23emotions](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/23emotions) collection. 



> This was initially intended to be, for one, a lot shorter, and, two, an original work. I got carried away this myself and ended up with this.
> 
>  
> 
> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Degrassé
> 
> adj. entranced and unsettled by the vastness of the universe, experienced in a jolt of recognition that the night sky is not just a wallpaper but a deeply foreign ocean whose currents are steadily carrying off all other castaways, who share our predicament but are already well out of earshot—worlds and stars who would’ve been lost entirely except for the scrap of light they were able to fling out into the dark, a message in a bottle that’s only just now washing up in the Earth’s atmosphere, an invitation to a party that already ended a million years ago.

**December, 2009**

**Xavier’s Mansion (Grounds)**

…

Logan wandered across the garden over to the old apple tree. He’d grown so old and so tired, and he yearned for the good old days. God! Everything, and everyone, was so _damn_ old… if not dead.

He didn’t know what to think of the new students. He’d seen their files, he was sure they had potential, but it just seemed so strange; there’d been no classes since _the incident_. Could things just go back to normal?

So many of his friends were dead, or _dying_. Xavier was bed-ridden and skeletally thin. That made him one of the lucky ones; the Professor had time, now, to get his affairs in order and say his goodbyes. Peter and Kurt, and so many others, never got that chance.

Logan eased up against the trunk to rest and to clear his head. He exhaled and saw his breath travel through the cold still air. He was, by far, the oldest member of the X-Men. Of course, ever since he’d joined, that had always been the case but it only just struck him now. He’d seen a lot of very talented people pass through onto retirement or defection or death. Maybe he just didn’t feel like seeing much more of it.

Eight new students meant, ultimately, eight more deaths, whether they came quickly and violently or slowly and naturally. It was very likely he’d see them all. Xavier had once said that Logan could live for another hundred years. Who could _possibly_ need that much time on Earth?

He went on like that, thinking about all the tragedies he’d seen and, then, those he was yet to witness. He, of course, eventually elected to trust the dying Professor. The X-Men needed to go on, no one could afford to quit, and humanity would be doomed without the one team of superheroes they most despised.

Logan, certainly, was no quitter. He had to stop thinking about himself, and what _he_ could bear to see, and focus on the team. He’d go with Rogue, meet the would-be classmates, size them up and take them through the next five years. He was looking forward to meeting some of them, the more he thought about it. There was a girl from San Francisco he imagined might be able to keep him on his feet and a meta-morph he _knew_ could do some serious damage with enough training.

He looked out, over the field, to the mansion, sitting upon its hill. It looked just like it had so many decades ago when he’d first seen it. Of course, the kids coming wouldn’t share his experiences. Even so, he felt something close to kinship with them; he’d soon be welcoming them into a secret world that only a very select few had ever lived in.


	2. The Arrivals

**January, 2010**

**Green Bay, Wisconsin**

Charlotte’s mother and father were nothing but supportive. In fact, it often bewildered her. She’d heard so much anti-mutant prejudice from the world at large that she could never really understand why her parents were so different. She’d put them through hell, and it would have been so much easier for them to get rid of her.

Her powers were barely under control now, but for most of her life they’d been wild and terrifying. She could only wonder, in horror, at what would have happened if Xavier hadn’t been there for her. She’d found him early in life, stumbling through the psychic plane, and he’d helped coach her in the small ways that he could.

He’d entered her life more physically after a flare-up had left her in hospital. He came to visit her and spent hours talking with her parents. They’d hung on his every word, having spent so long waiting for someone like him, who could take care of their daughter in a way they never could.

Now, it was time for them to let go. She hugged them, and thanked them for everything. Her dad insisted on taking her luggage to the car, only so that he could spend a few extra seconds with her. He held on to her, whilst he talked to Mrs Lebeau and asked her questions he’d already asked her countless times before.

“So, when do classes start?”

“They should start as soon as possible but they’ll all have started by February or March, once we’ve got all the students set-up and acclimated to life at the Mansion. We’ll let you know once Charlotte’s been enrolled and we’ll send you regular progress reports.” Rogue’s answer was well trained, and not just because she’d told it to Charlotte’s father a couple of dozen times throughout the previous year. She took her responsibilities seriously, and she felt under a lot of pressure to keep Xavier’s legacy alive.

Charlotte said her goodbyes to her father a few times before getting into the car. As it pulled out of the drive-way and down the road, she put on a big smile and waved at him like she was a little girl coming around from her first ever ride on a Merry-go-round.

It made Rogue, who was in the passenger’s seat, smile a little. Her driver, a gruff, hairy man with a tonne of muscle to make up for his short stature, didn’t change his expression (a permanent frown). Once her father went out of view, she stopped waving and melted into her seat with relief. She was so glad to be able to unburden her parents and she was looking forward to meeting people like her and who were her own age.

“Am I the first one you’ve picked up?” Charlotte could find that out for herself, with ease, but the Professor had always told her that it was wrong to pry without consent.

Rogue replied. “Yes… we thought it made sense. You aren’t the oldest but you’re the one we’ve known about for the longest time. We’re picking four other people up today, so you won’t be alone. The rest will be coming in over the next week or so.”

“What’s different about them?”

“Well, let’s just say that not everyone’s parents are as comfortable with mutants as yours are.”

That made Charlotte sad to think about. She just nodded and stopped asking questions. In fact, she felt a little guilty, in a way. She’d been such a handful as a child and, yet, she knew there were mutants who were nothing but helpful and still got rejected by their families.

…

**Toronto, Ontario, Canada**

John Tsung was a cool guy. At least, that’s the image he liked to present. He tried very hard to make it seem like he wasn’t trying at all. His telepathy did make things a little easier, in that regard.

He’d always thought his powers were fairly weak. That was, however, until he met the Professor. Xavier had been very happy to meet him. John had minor local celebrity as a psychic boy wonder; which was probably why he’d never felt too excited about his abilities. He was all too aware that a lot of the things the public believed about him, and a lot of the extraordinary feats he was supposed to have accomplished, were heavily exaggerated by his parents and his agent.

Professor X had initially believed he was a fake, because he’d never been able to link up with him, psychically. It was only when they had met face-to-face that John learnt the true extent of his powers.

Xavier had revealed to John that he could seemingly block the psychic abilities of other mutants. He’d been told that, with a life-time of training, he might, one day, be able to control it. Until then, however, with as many minds as he could read, his own was a closed book.

He slipped into the car and flashed a broad smile. His parents weren’t fond of big dramatic goodbyes, they were only concerned that he might keep the car waiting so they ushered him out of the house, as soon as it parked up, with his luggage in a hold-all that they’d made him pack the night before.

…

**Dallas, Texas**

The Benítez household was chaotic. Everyone was always in a rush, nothing was ever quite where anyone put it and no amount of planning could overcome the family’s curse of tardiness.

Sofia seemed not to fare as badly as her parents but the younger sister, Maria, had no such luck. Sofia tried to be patient with her but it was difficult sometimes. “ _Ay! Ay! Ay!_ Maria!” Her sister’s suitcase was only half-packed and the car was already waiting for them.

“Go on, Maria… I’ll pack for you. Go do your hair.”

Maria brightened up instantly, left their bedroom and scurried off to the bathroom without so much as a thank you.

Once they were eventually ready to go, Logan carried their suitcases to the car as they said goodbye to their parents. It had taken some time for their mother to accept that her daughters were mutants but their father had always been fine with it. As it turned out, having a daughter with ice powers, Sofia, and another with fire powers, Maria, had come in pretty handy around the house in a few different ways.

…

**Raleigh, North Carolina**

As Rogue looked at the youngster in the backseat, she saw the rings around his eyes and the down-cast look on his face.

“Hey, darling. Didn’t get much sleep, huh?” She gave him an encouraging smile.

“No. I barely slept at all.” His voice was hoarse.

“Bad dreams, again?”

“Yeah.” They were a side-effect of his powers, or so he’d been told. Of course, most telepaths suffered from occasional nightmares. And overactive imaginations but these dreams were something else.

As a child they’d utterly petrified him. He would try to find any excuse to stay up for as long as possible every night. Some of his brothers had been sympathetic and would try to find a football game or movie for them to watch on television that ended very late at night but it was never enough to spare him from the nightmares once they decided to rear their ugly heads again.

Xavier had theorised that they might be connected to his limited precognitive abilities. However, the idea that the things he saw could be visions of the future only served to terrify him even further.

…

**Xavier’s Mansion**

Charlotte found it difficult to do much more than sit around and twiddle her thumbs. Mister Summers had suggested that she unpack and stake a claim on a bed. However, she couldn’t bear the thought of her fellow students arriving without her noticing so she just sat on the couch in the lobby with her mind open.

She could hear quite a lot if she paid the slightest amount of attention. She could hear the thoughts of local wildlife, people in cars more than a mile away and, if she wanted to, the staff. It had taken her a long time to learn how to filter most of it out.

She used to be bombarded with the thoughts of a city’s worth of people, all muddled and overlapping. Sleep was, sometimes, her only escape.

When John walked in, everything stopped.

“Woah.”

John was a little taken aback but he smiled and laughed. “I’m glad you think so.”

Charlotte became red-faced. “Sorry, it’s just that my powers – I’m a telepath – sorry, hi, yes – my powers just cut out a little, I guess, and it caught me off-guard.”

“No, it’s my fault – it’s my powers, they’re – I’m John, I’m a telepath, too – “

“I’m Charlotte – yes, hi, no, go on.”

“Yeah, it’s my powers. You’ll have trouble using yours when you’re around me.”

Charlotte just nodded, trying not to embarrass herself any further, and John went off to get formally enrolled. Once he was a few metres away her telepathy washed back in. She sighed, relieved and exasperated.

The two sisters came next. Sofia, taller and older, by a year or so, and much skinnier, with long black hair, immediately went through to enrolment and, after that, went on to unpack and claim a room for her and her sister, but Maria stuck around to chat.

She was very smiley and excited. She shook Charlotte’s hand and giggled. “Hi, I’m Maria!”

…

**Chinatown, San Francisco, California**

It was very early in the morning, around four o’clock, when Logan came to collect Jessica Renault. He’d read her file and knew a little bit about what to expect from her. She’d been living in the back room of a small gym and boxing club for the past few months. When he found her she was hammering away at a punching bag.

Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Right. Left. Right. Right. Right! She was really laying into it. It was all she knew. She was a fighter and she was happy for that to be all she ever was. It was her childhood, her life and it would be her death, so long as she could help it.

“Hey there, kiddo.”

She turned to him immediately, a little startled but masking it well. Sometimes she lost herself when training, the rest of the world fell away. She had to huff and puff a little before responding to him. “Hey.” She tugged at her ponytail to make sure it hadn’t come loose and picked up her duffel bag. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

She began walking at a brisk pace, passing him by and heading out. He called out to her. “Ain’t ya’ got anyone to say goodbye to?”

“No.”

…

**New York, New York**

Rogue had to admit that Morlocks gave her the creeps. Just being down there, in the sewer, made her uncomfortable; adding a few thousands eyes staring at her from the darkness made things a whole lot worse.

A familiar face emerged from the darkness. The woman, leader and protector of the Morlocks, Callisto; she was old but still maintained an air of hardness. Her grey hair fell freely and messily, some of it covering her eye-patch.

Rogue felt better dealing with someone she knew and, better still, having Logan behind her to back her up. “I’ve come for the boy.”

Callisto smirked at that. Her tone was teasing. “The boy? You can’t mean Billy, surely? He looks like a man grown, to me.” At that, the soon-to-be student was pushed forth from the shadows; he had dark-blue skin, his head and back were covered in similarly coloured fur and his face resembled something halfway between a man and a wolf. He seemed to prefer this form to the others Rogue had seen him use as a child.

“That’s him. You agreed that he could join us.”

“I agreed he could join you, yes… as part of a _deal_.” The deal was that Billy would be sheltered and taken care of until the Mansion reopened and, in return, they would take on a Morlock student.

“Yes, very well. Who are we taking back with us?” Rogue didn’t feel entirely comfortable with the idea, but she didn’t let it show; she didn’t want to offend Callisto nor upset whoever they happened to be taking away.

Callisto gave no answer, she simply motioned towards the crowd of eyes and shadows. A girl stepped out into the light, she had dark skin, crystal white hair and her eyes were…

Rogue didn’t know if they were beautiful or horrifying or both, but they were the palest shade of red, more like off-white, with small pupils surrounded by the thinnest sliver of pale blue iris. They also seemed to be peppered with black specs, tiny circles swimming around slowly and randomly.

She was staring, and saying nothing.

Logan faked a cough to snap her out of it and offered a hand to the girl. She was very innocent looking, apart from her eyes, she wore a large smile and dainty tent dress with pink and yellow flowers. It struck Logan as being out of place in the sewer, she must’ve been well taken care of by someone.

She came along with them, as did the boy. Rogue went after them, not wishing to linger and not exchanging a single other word with Callisto.

On the car ride back, Rogue couldn’t hide her curiosity. She leaned her head around her seat and gave the girl a big smile, it was returned immediately. In fact, the girl seemed to be delighted with most of everything she’d seen since leaving the sewers. Rogue wondered if she’d ever been to the surface.

“So, what’s your name?”

“Lucy. That’s what they called me anyway. A weird old man once told me I’d been called something different when I was baby but he couldn’t tell me what. He said he didn’t know, and it’s been a mystery to me ever since.” That fascinated Rogue and she was also glad the girl was both confident and articulate enough to give her such an interesting answer, she didn’t know what passed for education down there.

“What about your powers? Do you know what they are?”

“Yes.” She beamed. “I’m a monster.”


	3. The Headache

**Xavier’s Mansion**

Sleeping arrangements were sorted out, properly, on the third day, when all the students were there. They occupied three rooms in all, Billy and Lucy bunked together and the other two were separated by gender. They were promised separate rooms in the second year. Until then, bunking together would help make the class feel more like a family.

They all got along fairly well, although they hadn’t got to know each other well enough for any personality conflicts to become evident. Jessica was the odd-one-out in terms of her disinterest in socialising and Billy was the most awkward.

Their first ever class was fairly informal. It was general studies, which met everyone had to take it. The lecturer, Ms Monroe, used it as an opportunity for them all to get to know one another.

“Let’s take it in turns. Tell everyone your name, your age, your powers and maybe a little titbit, something interesting about yourself.” She searched the faces for the one least excited at the prospect and picked on him. “Mister Donaldson, let’s start with you.”

The blue boy twitched when his name was called out and he avoided eye contact with the teacher. “Um. Yes. Okay. I’m Billy, but well… I, uh, mean, that some people call me Will or William, I guess. Oh, and, yeah, I’m fifteen… and I’m a shape-shifter. That’s it. There’s nothing else.”

“Okay… What about you, Sofia?”

The girl she addressed was sitting upright and attentive in a pale blue shirtwaist dress. “My name is Sofia, and this is my sister…” she pointed at the girl sat next to her, with much darker skin and brown hair. “I’m eighteen and… I turn water into ice, including water vapour in the air. Something interesting about me is, well, I’ve always got pretty good grades.” She gave that answer with a sheepish smile.

“And Maria?”

“Yeah, that’s me… I’m her sister.” She giggled. “I’m sixteen and I’ve got awesome powers! I can set the air on _fire_ and melt metal!” She laughed a bit more and looked around at everyone, making sure the others were paying attention. “And… something interesting about me? Well, what is there to say? … I’m single!” She let out another round of giggles before burying her head in her crossed arms in feigned embarrassment.

Then came the one everyone was waiting for. “How about you Lucy?” Most of the students shifted in their seats to watch her give her answers. She was an enigma.

Her cheeks reddened a little, under their collective gaze. “Yes, I’m Lucy… I… I don’t think I have a last name. I’m sixteen, as well, although I celebrate my birthday a few months after the day I probably was born. I celebrate the day I came to the Morlocks. As for my powers, I can transform into a… creature. Callisto told me, when I do, it makes me look a Wendigo. I don’t think I know enough to tell you much else.”

After everyone else had had a turn, Ms Monroe had given them something of an induction, a run-through of the classes on offer and how to sign-up, the qualifications that they’d be coming away with and what their futures might look like.

“This is the _number-one_ recruiting ground for the X-Men. You’ll be taught by former members and their domestic headquarters is located underneath the mansion. Of course, not everyone wants to be a superhero and the education we’re offering you is every bit as good as one you’d receive in the human world. You have access to a massive physical library, selective access to Professor Xavier’s personal collection and a computer system with subscriptions to every academic journal published world-wide. Every last one of you, assuming you graduate, will receive a reference from the man, himself, and a grant for a single course of post-graduate study at any institute that will accept your application.”

They were given a tour through the mansion that ended on the expansive grounds. There, they were left with the rest of the day off. Billy, Sofia and Jessica went back inside but the rest of them stayed around outside to mingle. Charlotte chatted with James and Lucy, stood around on the pavement outside the conservatory. John went to look around the woods to the north, by the groundskeeper’s shed. Maria hurried along behind him.

Charlotte sighed once he was out of range. She realised that she’d become accustomed to a kind of low-volume psychic white-noise that he interrupted whenever he was in the same room. “James, you’re a psychic, does John mess with your powers as well?”

The seventeen year old shrugged. “I’d assume so… but I don’t really use my powers that much. They’re a headache, more of a curse than anything.”

“Yeah, I get that. I was in-and-out of hospital so many times when I was kid.”

James gave her a look of sympathy. “Well, mine never got that bad. They give me night terrors.” His eyes were dull, and tired.

Charlotte changed the subject. “So, Lucy, did you know Billy before we all met? I overheard one of the teachers saying they picked you both up in New York. Were you both living with the Morlocks?”

“Yes, and no. We did both live down there, but I was born there and I spent more time with the other children. Billy was adopted, I think. He came to us as a kid but he was sheltered by Callisto. We never saw much of him and he rarely talked to anyone even when he was allowed out.”

…

John wondered why Maria was following him. She wasn’t dressed for the cold or the mud, denim short shorts and a pretty pink plunging halter top. She had trainers on, at least. He didn’t question her on it, though. He didn’t want to be rude.

“This is cool, huh?”

He didn’t know whether she meant the woods, though he doubted it, or the whole experience of being at the famous X-Men Academy. “Yeah. I want to explore every inch of this place. Do you like the woods?”

“Sure.”

He wasn’t convinced but, again, he let it go. He was enjoying himself, either way. He’d always liked the outdoors. There was an inviting tree a few metres away, with about a dozen sturdy looking branches evenly spaced out leading right up to the tippy top. He felt like a kid again.

He ran over and went straight to climbing. He got up to the fourth branch before turning around and settling in. He looked down at Maria, who was looking up at him with her hands on her hips. “Now, what am I going to do, if you’re up there?”

“You could get up with me.”

She didn’t look impressed but he coaxed her up, climbing down a little to offer her a hand up. She was very unsteady and slipped on the second branch. She panicked. “Ah! Hold me! Hold me!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” She wobbled a little but couldn’t really go anywhere with him holding her. She eventually managed to make it to the third branch. “Come sit with me.” He motioned for her to come by his side, between him and the trunk.

She shook her head. “I’d get my ass all wet and muddy.” Her short shorts were, it turned out, _too_ short. “Come closer and I could sit on your lap.”

He laughed at the idea. “I’ve only just met you. I’m not sure we’re at the ‘sit on my lap’ stage quite yet.”

She wouldn’t have it. “What, are you leaving me standing here?” Her tone was playfully indignant.

He didn’t really have a good answer for her. After a few seconds of thought, he responded. “Oh, alright, you can sit on my lap.”

She manoeuvred over to him awkwardly and was even more unsteady on his lap than she had been standing. She held onto the trunk with both hands. He laughed in feigned exasperation. “Come _here_.” He wrestled her arms away from the trunk and settled them both as comfortably as he could, with his back against the trunk.

After a few moments of silence, his cheeks reddened and he turned away from her. She was very pretty and the way she had one of her hands, rubbing at his forearm, was making his heart beat a little too fast.

“What is it?” She giggled her question out because she knew exactly what it was. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”

He turned to her, to find that she was now nestled into his chest. “Yes.”

…

Billy had gone straight up to the room he now shared with Lucy. He really didn’t do _people_ and much preferred to be alone. Jessica and Sofia, however, went through the Mansion, retracing their steps from the tour. They made small-talk along the way.

Sofia was bursting with excitement. “Are you coming to the library too? I’ve never seen anything like it. I just know I’m going to love it here.”

Jessica’s response was blunt. “No. I’m going to the gym.” She wasn’t as anti-social as Billy but she couldn’t really find a point of connection with any of her fellow students. She’d had to grow up fast and, despite just being nineteen and only marginally the oldest, she couldn’t help but think of the rest of them as _kids_.

Sofia was undeterred. “What classes are you thinking of signing up to?”

Jessica humoured her. “Athletics. Mutant History. Advanced Mathematics.”

“Ooh!” Sofia gently elbowed the other girl. “I’m taking math as well!”

Jessica looked at her, bemused, and simply nodded. “What else are you taking?”

That set Sofia off. “Genetics & Mutant Biology looks really cool, I’d really like to take that as far as I can. I’d never have thought of myself as a geneticist but it really interested me. To be honest, I always thought I’d just end up as a high school teacher, or something like that. But, oh yeah, and the other classes; well, I think I should take that meditation class, you know because I can sometimes get a little stressed, and Medicine’s a must for me. And… well, Literature or something like that, maybe Communications, makes sense. There are a few other classes that I really thought about, but I don’t think I’d have time for them.”

A few moments passed in silence before Sofia piped up again.

“Are you hoping to get onto the X-Men team? I know you said you’ve had combat training. That sounds really fascinating.”

Jessica smiled at that but it took a while for her to answer. It felt oddly personal to share her hopes and dreams with someone. “Yeah, I want to be an X-Man someday. But… really, I’d be fine with one of the B-teams.” She said it in a way that communicated she would absolutely _not_ be fine with being put on a B-team.

“I think you could do it. I mean, just from the look of you and the way you speak. You seem… tough.”

Jessica took that as a compliment and answered with a nod. “You do know we passed by the library a while ago?”

“Oh.” Sofia stopped dead in her tracks, trying not to look embarrassed and failing. “Well, it’s been nice to talking to you. See you later.”

…

Lucy didn’t like the prospect of sharing a room with Billy. She was sure he was nice but she knew it’d make her lonely not to have anyone to chat to. She was also troubled by what she assumed was the motivation for putting them together. Their powers and their background were such that it felt as if their room was the designated “freaks’ bedroom” in case they did anything weird or dangerous.

She came into their room to find Billy sat on his bed, hunched up against the headboard, reading. She said hello but he just gave her a halfhearted nod.

She sat herself up on the couch. That was a consolation, at least. Perhaps in return for not having much company (they were on the ground floor, below the other two rooms on the first floor), they’d been given a more spacious room with a bigger television than the others and a couch and a nice glass coffee table. She flicked through the channels but found herself overwhelmed by the obscene amount of choice. As a Morlock, and a child at that, her previous experience with television had been very limited.

She gave up and went over to her bed. She patted it down and sat on the edge. “What’re you reading?”

Billy looked up from his book, he seemed very skittish. He tried to answer her but his voice was too dry. He choked a little before answering. He couldn’t maintain eye contact as he did so, it made him uncomfortable. “It’s… uh… it’s ‘Hank McCoy’s Unfinished Memoirs’. His estate published it a few months ago, and I got it as a Christmas present.”

“Cool. Is it good? He was that politician who got shot, right?” Lucy knew next to nothing about him but she wanted Billy to open up to her. She couldn’t stomach the thought of having to endure so much awkwardness every night for the twelve months they were going to be spending together.

Billy _did_ open up a little. No one had ever shown much interest in the books he read, so he relished the opportunity to share his passion. “Yeah, he was the Vice President. It’s really fascinating to read. I know it’s, kind of, morbid but it makes it even more interesting to read knowing that they were never finished, that they just stop being written.

I’ve reread it a few times now and there’s this inescapable foreboding tone as you get towards the end. I don’t know if this me projecting, since we all know now what happened to him, or if, in some way, he _felt_ it coming.”

Lucy made a face and clutched at her stomach.

“I’m sorry if it’s upsetting. I never know when to stop.”

“No, no.” she lied. “It’s me, I’m just feeling a little unwell.”

…

James looked over at John. “So, what do you think?”

“What do I think about what?”

“This place, the course… and the girls.” James grinned out the last few words. He’d already got a favourite.

“This place is great. It feels so good to get out of the city. I don’t know about that last part. I think it’s a little too soon to say what I think of the girls.”

James wouldn’t have it. “What about Maria? She followed you into the woods today, and I doubt it was for the pleasure of freezing her ass off. Did you see what she was _wearing_?!”

John shook his head at the question. “Yes, I saw what she was wearing. What about it? She can wear whatever she likes.”

James scoffed at that. “I didn’t say she couldn’t. I’m just asking if she left an impression on you. Did you guys get up to anything in the woods?”

John gave him an exasperated look. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“So, you’re saying you’re not interested?” James was determined to get an answer out of him.

“I’m saying nothing happened… and now I’m saying we should get to bed.” John began to get undressed but James wasn’t about to just give up.

“Did she blow you or something?” He asked the question with a blunt tone and a poker-face. John burst out laughing.

“Dude! What kind of question is that? Nothing happened, end of story.” He was down to his boxers and slipping beneath his sheets, anxious for the conversation to end.

James pulled out the big guns, hoping this would finally get a good enough response. “Well then, I guess if nothing happened, I can try to get with her, right?”

John looked up at him, utterly bewildered by the other boy’s frankness. “Yeah, okay, fine. You can get with her. I don’t care, because _nothing happened_.”

…

The girls had determined their sleeping arrangements fairly easily, all told. The sisters shared a bunk and Sofia got the bottom bunk because she was the eldest. On the other side of the room, Jessica had just taken the top bunk without issue. She’d said she preferred it.

Maria sat up, cross-legged on her bed, looking over the room. “So, Charlotte, do you think any of the boys are cute?” She’d already begun giggling.

“I guess, James and John are nice looking.” Charlotte was happy to play along with her, if it earned her friendship. She’d loved slumber parties as a kid, and this didn’t feel much different.

“Oh!” Maria gave her a sly look. “So, you like John too? Well, I might let you have a turn once I’ve had a go on him.”

“Maria! Don’t be so vulgar! And, we should be getting to sleep.” Sofia was used to having to snap at her sister when she spoke out of turn. She had a foul mouth, despite the best efforts of their beleaguered parents to teach her good manners.

Maria rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to her, Charlotte. She always says she has to sleep when I want to talk about boys. You know, she’s never even _kissed_ a boy?”

“ _Ay. Ay. Ay.”_ Sofia’s tone was tired and defeated.

“So, what about you, Jessica, which of the boys do you like?” Maria called over to the opposite bunk, where Jessica was rolled over on her side away from her.

“I don’t.” Jessica didn’t turn around to speak.

“You don’t like boys?” Maria’s tone was teasing.

“No.”

Maria began to giggle. “Oh, so you like _girls_ , then?”

“Yes. Now, stop bothering me.”

Maria couldn’t contain her excitement. She leaned over the railing and beamed at her sister. “Sofia! She’s a lesbian! That could be what you are! I’d never even thought of that!”

Sofia responded, angry and defensive. “Shut up, now, Maria!”

Her sister was unfazed. “Hey, Jessica! Would you bang Sofia?” She managed to eke her question out in between fits of hysteric laughter.

“Hush, now, Maria! Please!” Sofia’s tone had turned towards pleading and, whilst Maria was fine with annoying or angering her sister, she didn’t want to upset her so she settled down and got back to questioning Charlotte. “How long do you think it’ll be before I can get John to start sneaking in here?”

“I couldn’t say. I don’t much about him.”

…

At around two o’clock in the morning, the rest of the girls were woken up by groans and choked screams. Sofia rushed over to Charlotte to wake her up. Once she was up, she keeled over in pain.

“Are you alright, do we need to get help?”

“No, it’s… ow… fine. This’s happened before.” She held her hand to her forehead, she had a splitting headache that wouldn’t ease up. “I used to get these all the time when I was a kid. It’s just my powers acting up. They sometimes run wild, and it takes a while for them to switch off.”

Sofia held her hand to Charlotte’s forehead. It was a relieving cool temperature. The other girls went back to sleep, as did Sofia once she was happy that Charlotte had calmed down and managed to “switch off”.

She was set off again, barely an hour later. This time, Maria immediately got up, put a t-shirt on and left. Her sister called out to her. “What’re you doing?”

“Going to sleep somewhere else.” She left despite her sister’s further protests.

Sofia, once again, helped Charlotte calm down. Jessica came down from her bunk and walked off.

“And where are _you_ going?”

“To bunk with the freaks.”

…

“Hey. Hey, John, wake up.”

John groaned and rubbed at his eyes before he saw Maria leaning over him. He was startled and demanded to know what she was doing.

“Charlotte’s keeping all of us up. I came to bunk with you guys, so I could get some rest.”

He calmed down a little. “Oh. Well, okay then.” He motioned for her to go up the ladder.

She smiled and pulled her t-shirt off, laughing and throwing it in his face. He watched her ascend the ladder, he could see her bronze-skin illuminated by the moonlight seeping through his window. She took a lot longer to get up than she needed to.

He sighed and went back to his sleep. “Jesus Christ.”

…

Jessica found her bunkmates for the night sound asleep. Billy was hunched up near his headboard totally encased in his quilt cover. Lucy was sleeping properly, on her side and showing her pretty angel’s face. Jessica lingered a second or so longer before setting herself up on the couch.


	4. The 'Danger Room'

The morning after, their sleeping arrangements were changed. Charlotte was moved to the boys’ room, where the faculty hoped John’s presence would alleviate her psychic stress. Lucy and Billy were given the opportunity to split up and bunk with the others. Billy didn’t go for it but Lucy did, though she felt a little guilty about leaving him on his own.

The rest of the day was mainly free. It was part of what had been dubbed “sign-up week”. Ms Monroe’s office stayed open during that period for any of them to come and discuss anything and they were each given a thick brochure and a couple of sign-up sheets.

…

Logan took the opportunity of a free-day to visit Mystique, like he had so many times before over the past decade. The Brotherhood’s truce with the X-Men meant that he was allowed into their headquarters but it didn’t mean their foot soldiers had to like it. He caught dozens of dirty looks and insults hurled from across the room as he walked to Mystique’s boudoir. They couldn’t possibly faze him. He knew that, if worst came to worst, he could kill each every one of them with a modicum of effort.

He’d had a very long life and faced countless beings far tougher than any of them could ever hope to be. If he could kill _the Hulk_ , he could kill the Toad, and Basilisk and all the other nobodies who made up the brotherhood’s ranks. In fact, the only member of the Brotherhood that had posed a threat to him, Magneto, had left the faction a long time ago.

Once he’d got up to Mystique’s room he went in and locked the door behind him. He was desperate for this. He needed it like he needed air.

He turned to find Jean Grey… sweet Jeanie… standing there by the bed. She looked like she hadn’t aged a day in twenty years. She looked exactly like she had the day before she’d died. She was stark naked and staring straight at him with her beautiful green eyes. He walked towards her and slumped to his knees.

He kissed at her thigh and she gently ran a hand through his hair. It wasn’t long before she’d taken his clothes off and they were rocking against each other on her bed in ecstasy. It was, as always, a delirious experience and time seemed to go in slow motion as they went at it. He allowed himself to believe, in those precious moments, that she’d never really died. He was a hopeless fool.

After he’d come to his climax, they held each other, she rested her head on his chest, he stroked at her hair and they began a conversation they must’ve had over a hundred times before. “I’ve missed you.” There was a tremble in his voice.

“I’ve missed you too.” She always cried at this part. Mystique had always told herself that, as weird as it all was, it was just sex. In her more honest moments, though, she admitted that it had become a whole lot more than that. It was a game, and she’d lost herself in it.

“I love you, Jeanie. I think about you all the time and it still hurts, after all these years. It _still_ hurts.”

…

Sofia found Jessica in the gym, the first place she looked. She was running on the treadmill, bright red and sweating buckets. She came to an abrupt halt when she noticed the other girl come over to her. She lowered the settings to a brisk walking pace.

“Hey, I just wanted to apologise for what my sister said, last night.” Sofia was used to having to do this.

“Don’t.”

Sofia didn’t understand. “Well… I mean… I feel like I ought to. She can a little carried away sometimes.”

“You’re not responsible for that.” Jessica had grown tired of the conversation.

“Still, it wasn’t right, and…”

Jessica cut her off. “What? You’re not your sister, so you don’t have to apologise for anything she says or does.”

“I guess not.” Jessica had already stopped listening and put the settings on the treadmill back so Sofia just left still feeling like she had to apologise. It ended up bugging her all day that she hadn’t been allowed to.

Once she’d left the room, Jessica pushed herself even harder, gritting her teeth and upping the settings to the maximum. The interaction had infuriated her.

…

James had been itching to talk to Charlotte as soon as he’d heard what happened. He found her outside, in the same spot from the day before. She wasn’t talking to anyone, just day-dreaming.

“Hey. I heard what happened last night. Are you alright?” He sat down beside her.

“Yeah, I’m okay now.” She looked at him with a reassuring smile, as if to back up her words.

“So, what was it? Did you get, like, visions or something like that?”

“No, just… voices… screams… It’s hard to explain. They’re loud but… distant and they just don’t _stop_.”

“I’ve been there. Sometimes when I used to wake up from my nightmares they’d, sort of, carry on for a while later. Images and noises would persist. It was terrifying but… it never really gave me migraines, just insomnia.”

She took his hand in hers. “Show me.”

He didn’t resist and she went prying into his mind. She found them there, the horrible dreams. Once she was done, she gave him a look of sympathy and he returned her a smile. They didn’t need to keep talking. They _understood_ each other.

…

_The Unfinished Memoirs of Doctor Hank McCoy, edited by Alex Summers, foreword by Professor Charles Xavier_

An excerpt from chapter eight: “… That’s why I believed in him so much. In many ways, he reminded me of the professor. I knew he’d never let me down, he was an idealist like myself and like Xavier.

I remember an event, in the May of ’87, where the usual rabble of anti-Mutant protesters got much closer to the platform than they ever had before. That was the first time I ever seriously had the thought that this could get me killed. Before, I’d always looked on the protesters with pity and maybe a dash of contempt but, this time, I really felt this awful sense of dread.

He’d confided to me a few days later that he was petrified of them. He hid it well at the time, of course. That’s how he got to be President, he never wavered in his confidence. That’s the only real thing that distinguished him from the two of us (the Professor and me), not the human thing, it was his _confidence_.

Oh, certainly, we were confident in our views, we were confident in our writing, but he was confident in _every single thing_ he ever did or said. I may be biased, in fact I know I am (we did some great work in Government and I’m damn proud of it), but I really do rank him amongst the great Presidents. The real greats, Lincoln and Roosevelt.

Usually, in politicians, you’re either dealing with an idealist with all the passion but none of the flair or you’re dealing with a charmer with all of the style but none of the substance. He was both. It was after meeting him that I finally knew, even if they got me, the Movement was going to achieve something in America… ”

…

That night went by much smoother.

“Thanks for agreeing to do this, John. I’m sure it’s just a side-effect of homesickness.”

“Don’t mention it. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. James is already benefiting from my powers, and it’s not like it inconveniences me.”

She went to bed in her pyjamas and John couldn’t help but notice, as she climbed up, the contrast between her and the girl who’d shared their room the night before. “So, have you guys signed up for anything yet?”

James chimed in. “I’m taking Fine Art, Media and Mutant History. I’ve already handed my sheet in.”

John was less sure. “I still don’t really know. I think I could go for Math, but, other than that, I’m unsure. Physics could work… How about you?”

“Media, definitely… and Communications. Those two are already down on my sheet but I feel like I ought to put something else down.”

“Yeah, I’ve got that feeling too. It seems like three is the magic number but I just don’t want to be stuck doing something I hate or that I’m no good at. To be honest, I don’t really like math or science, I just know that I could get decent grades in them. The one set-back to this place is that there are no sports teams.”

“You could take Athletics.”

“Yeah, I guess, but it’s just not the same. I’ll probably end up doing it, though, because there’s just nothing else that interests me.”

James asked, incredulously “… what _does_ interest you?”

“Baseball.”

…

Maria was a little peeved that Charlotte got to bunk with the boys or, rather, that _she_ didn’t get to but getting a new roommate made up for it. Lucy was a little reluctant to talk about boys but she let Maria lead the discussion.

“So, what’s Billy like? Did he talk to you when you were there with him?”

“He did, a little bit. He’s not shy, I think he just doesn’t know how to talk to people without alienating them.”

“He’s a little weird, huh?”

Lucy couldn’t answer before Sofia started giving her sister an earful. “Maria! Don’t be so rude!”

“Oh, come on! Everyone thinks he’s weird, even you. You’re just in a mood with me because of last night.”

Lucy gave Maria a quizzical look.

“Last night, I implied my darling sister was gay... because she _definitely_ is.”

Lucy let out half a giggle but stifled her laughter with a hand over her mouth. Sofia tried a new tactic, feigning disinterest. “Whatever you say, Maria. Now, I think we should all go to sleep. We didn’t get much of it last night.”

“Speak for yourself. I left when Charlotte flared-up the second time to bunk with the boys because I don’t have a lezzy crush on her like you do.”

“ _Adios mio!_ Maria, go to bed!”

“I’m _in_ bed… I’m just not asleep.”

…

With the next day came the thing Jessica had been waiting for since she’d first arrived; the introduction to the ‘Danger Room’.

Logan took the class and he was intent on putting them through their paces. They were suited up in full-body black spandex-like costumes each with a thin rubber chest-piece with a big green light in the centre.

It was an amazing facility. It was a massive empty room with steel walls, a steel floor and an omnipresent laser grid.

“I’m not going to mince words with you kids. This is alien technology. It was, almost certainly, the single most advanced training facility on Earth and will, very likely, remain that way for decades to come. It is also the place where a lot of the most famous X-Men shed blood, sweat and tears to become a part of the greatest team of superheroes in history.”

“I’m probably supposed to take you through some long boring talk on health and safety. There’s really very little you need to know; nothing in this room can kill or maim you, a lot of it can hurt you if you act like an idiot and don’t take it seriously. I’m here to keep you safe, and you can trust me because I’ve been present every time this place has ever been used. That said, I’m not here to nurse your boo-boos. I’m here to _test_ you.”

Some of the others looked intimidated but Jessica was raring to go, John was wearing his usual impassive facial expression and James was masking his trepidation with a look of excitement.

“I’m going to put you through a basic course. You have sixty seconds to prepare yourself. I want to see what I’m dealing with and I don’t expect much. I want you to try your hardest, even if your hardest isn’t all that much. The goal is to get to the end of the room. Good luck.” With that, he left them and went up to the control panel.

Jessica and John both took up positions, getting ready to run like hell. James tried to mimic what they were doing and the others just, kind of, shuffled over to them looking lost and nervous, waiting for what horrors awaited.

“Ten… nine… eight…”

Sofia got startled. “Wait! Can’t we know what’s…?”

Logan paid her no attention. “Six… five… four…”

The others turned to the direction the three jays were facing, in a mixture of giddiness and terror.

“Two… one… Go!”

Jessica bolted forward, and John followed just a step behind. Neither of them even waited to see what was going to happen. Blocky, giant-sized white figures with a various assortment of weapons simply _appeared_ out of nowhere.

James made a run for it and the others followed after him, just as unprepared.

As they came up to the first figure, which Jessica and John had both already managed to doge, James’ first instinct was to lurch out of the way. He tripped onto his side and started to panic. By the time he’d scrambled to his feet, the figure had walked over to him, with the others stood still and staring in nervous fascination.

The figure had a large white jousting stick. He reared up and belted James. Sofia screamed in horror as he went flying through the air. Just as he was about to hit the ground, a small and thin crash-mat appeared, again out of nowhere, to cushion his landing. He had to take a moment to catch his breath, he’d been badly winded, and the others had all made their moves.

Maria had made a break for it as soon as he’d been hit. Lucy had rushed to join her and Billy had just stood exactly where he was, only moving once the figure had turned its attention to him. He bolted back down to where they’d started. Charlotte continued to move, but slowly and cautiously.

Sofia had gone over to James to check on him. “Are you alright?” She was very worried and wore the concern on her face.

“Yeah…” he choked out “… I’m just a little… Look Out!”

Sofia turned to be met with a swift but light kick from the figure that knocked her over. It then stood over her and tapped her chest-piece with its stick. The light on it went from green to red and the figure moved past them. James’ was red too.

Logan’s voice came in over the room’s speaker system. “James and Sofia, come up to the control panel, you’ve both been eliminated… Billy, you haven’t, so get back in there!”

Billy responded with a very cautious jog forward, keeping a considerable amount of distance between himself and the figures he was up against.

Further down the room, Jessica and John were up against considerably tougher opponents. The figures near the middle of the room were armed with cannons that fired what looked like soccer-balls.

One of them came right at John’s feet and he stumbled to the ground. “Jess! Help!”

Against her better judgement, she went back to help him up but, as soon as she was even partially static another ball came right at her. It hit her square in the chest, sent her flying and changed her light from green to red.

Once she realised what had happened, in between groans of pain, she hit at the floor and spat. “Damn it!”

Maria and Lucy weren’t faring much better. They’d come to a, practically, dead stop. They were confronted by three figures and couldn’t see any way of getting around them. They both decided to turn tail and run back but a figure from nearer the start got them both with one wild swing.

“Maria, Lucy, Jessica, come back to me, you’ve all been eliminated.”

By the time John was back to his feet, after managing to roll out of the way of some shots and catching the others hard in the back, Billy had, somehow, caught up to him. As soon as he got the chance, he turned to the blue boy. That’s when he noticed it.

Billy had grown a few feet, his chest had massively expanded, though the costume was still on since it was designed for use by all types of mutants, and his face was entirely devoid of all human features. He looked, essentially, like a hulking blue werewolf.

He ducked and weaved out of the way of cannon fire and, after rushing up to them, tore figure, after figure, into pieces.

“Cool!”

The next section of the course, with the wall they needed to get to only a few dozen metres away, was much trickier. The figures here had pistols which fired lasers, and at a much higher rate than the soccer-ball cannons.

One of them caught Billy, who’d just tried to sprint to the end, immediately and he regressed back to his usual form. He walked back to the start but had a noticeable look of pride on his face, nonetheless.

John had thought of something very quickly. Once he’d seen Billy get eliminated, he realised that the lasers had no concussive force. They were just designed to deactivate the green lights, seemingly just by connecting to it. Knowing this, John just tried to cover his light as best as he could, folding his arms over it and leaning down as he ran.

The strategy paid off and he made it to the end. He turned and slid down against the wall, exhausted but beaming. He saw Charlotte further down the room. She was moving at a decent pace but she was very skittish, letting out a startled yelp every time a ball came anywhere near her.

Once she got to the laser section, he called out to her. “Shield your light, you don’t have to dodge the lasers if you covering up the target!”

She did as he said and, to their mutual relief, made it to the end.

…

Logan had given them the rest of the day off and even let them stay out later than usual.

Jessica, however, had just gone straight to her room. The others enjoyed having time outside at night, chatting and goofing off. Sofia had stayed with them for a while before she started to feel bad about Jessica. She got back to the girl’s bedroom to hear the sound of murmurs and sniffling. The sound stopped as soon as she came in.

“Have you been _crying_?”

Jessica was up on her bed facing the wall. “No.” Her tone betrayed her.

Sofia climbed up the ladder. “It’s okay to cry.” She tried to stroke at the other girl’s hair but Jessica shrugged her off.

“I wasn’t crying.”

Sofia didn’t contradict her, even though she knew she was lying. “Well, okay. I just wanted make sure you were okay. You seemed really beat up about not finishing the run today.”

“Go away.”

Sofia’s first instinct was to protest but she stopped herself and descended the ladder. “Okay.” She went off, back to join the others.

…

John and Charlotte had stayed around since they’d both finished the run. They felt a sense of team spirit in having both done it. John had coaxed her up onto the roof of the conservatory, promising her a great view. He hadn’t been lying.

“It’s amazing.” The cloudless night’s sky was one of the most breath-taking things she’d ever seen.

“It is, isn’t it? It’s always been one of my favourite things to do when I’ve gone camping. You can’t get this in the city, with all the light pollution.”

“I never done this before.”

“You’ve never just taken the time to look up at the stars?”

“Not like this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Here. With you.” She smiled at him, and he smiled back, unsure of where she was taking their conversation. “Before, whenever I looked up into the sky, day or night, and I mean really _looked_ , I would be bombarded with psychic energy.”

“Your powers extend into space?”

Charlotte laughed. “No, don’t be silly. It’s …something else. It’s not my powers… well, it is, but it’s not just down to me. They just let me tap into it. There are some really powerful… _things_ … out there.”

John’s eyes went wide but he couldn’t manage to give her much in the way of a response. “Cool.” He’d immediately felt embarrassed by his paltry offering.

She let him get away with it and carried on. “I wish I could say the same. It always used to leave me with migraines that went on for days. The galaxy’s a really busy place, it’s teeming with life and, though only the tiniest fraction of that life is psychic, that still makes for a lot of noise.”

“How does it _work_ , though? Do you know?”

“Not really. Most of what I’ve told you, I learned from the Professor. He’s experienced it, himself. Enough to know that psychic energy must travel faster than light, _somehow_ , and that the people I’m hearing are probably _Shi’ar_.”

“What are they?”

“They’re really advanced and powerful. They were the ones who built the ‘Danger Room’. Some of them have powers, like us.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Yeah.” Charlotte went back to gazing at the stars. She leaned back and he slipped his arm around her waist. She coughed and looked at him with her eyes wide and her eyebrows held high.

He chuckled. “Relax, it’s to keep you from slipping. I’m not trying make a move.”

“Good.” She adjusted herself to hold onto his arm and leaned her head back into him.

**Author's Note:**

> The work is, if I'm being honest, basically unfinished. I definitely intend to use it as a starting point for a series, all of which will hopefully help me grow as a writer. I am extremely interested in feedback, both negative and positive. I've proof-read it a few times but if you notice anything that's slipped by men, I'll be happy to correct it. Thanks, in advance, for giving it a read-through.
> 
> It is, paradoxically, much longer and much shorter that I'd like it to be. As a challenge response, it should have been much more succinct and focused on one key scene but as a story, in general, it should have been a lot longer in order for it to have a more naturally ending (even for the first part of a series).
> 
> Peace and love.


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